Formalising the software evaluation process

Abstract

Software process evaluation is an essential activity for improving software development in an organisation. Actually there is a need for a formalised method of evaluation that encompasses all the factors that affect software production. If a software process evaluation is to faithfully reflect the current status of an organisation, it must also consider the assessment of other factors. In this paper, a formalised method of evaluation is presented that jointly assesses the three essential factors in software production: processes, technology and human resources. The aim behind this is to provide a solution to the main shortcomings of current software process evaluation methods: partiality of the evaluated factors and nonformalisation of the evaluation processes. Experimentation in various organisations has proven the adequacy of the proposed method for obtaining results that accurately portray the current status of the organisation's software process.

Software test process improvement approaches: A systematic literature review and an industrial case study

“…It is based on the concept of Evaluation Theory (Ares Casal et al, 1998) and it has been adapted to address the test process sufficiently. It consists of the following steps:…”